Tattooing is performed by means of a sharp, small diameter needle or cluster of needles which is dipped in a tattooing pigment. The needle, or needle unit, carrying pigment is vibrated into the skin to be tattooed. The needle is carried as a unit in a housing which includes means for vibrating the needle.
At the present time, the practice of dipping the needle into an ink or pigment is undesirably time consuming and inefficient. In order to obtain dark, permanent tattoos it is important to use adequate amounts of pigment on the points of the tattoo needle. In the process of dipping the needle into the pigment, if the needle is not dipped sufficiently frequently, a pale, poorly visible tattoo will result. Frequent dipping is time consuming and there is the ever-present danger of the needle striking a hard object and being damaged when dipped into the ink supply. In addition to the economic loss when the needle is damaged, the damaged needle, if used, will cause pain while tattooing. The damaged point may also macerate the skin tissue and produce local trauma which activates white blood cells (phagocytes) The phagocytes engulf the pigment particles and carry them away from the tattoo site and this results in fading of the tattoo as well as edema, inflammation, swelling and bleeding at the tattoo site.
Some tattooing apparatus is known which uses a reservoir of ink or pigment to supply the needle with pigment without dipping. However such apparatus cannot regulate pigment flow and the pigment constantly runs out of the reservoir and covers the entire tattoo site as well as the tattooist. This makes it difficult to see the tattoo site and the excess pigment must be cleaned away, thus wasting time and pigment.
The present invention solves this problem by providing a novel arrangement for coupling a source of tattooing ink directly to the tattoo needle unit whereby ink is constantly and controllably available and present on the needle unit as the tattooing operation is performed.